did he get enough? yes, he did. number 38. this is "sportscenter." plaxico burress sentenced. the emotional scene that played out inside the courtroom and the one thing he asked for. we may not know a lot about this nfl season. but trent dilfer has the five things we do know. >> i don't want sam to have to deal with the pressure. >> i'm anxious to see how he feels today. >> the m.r.i. came back negative. >> three big-time college programs have injured q.b.'s. we'll get the latest from all of their head coaches. did zack greinke do enough tonight to make a pitch to be the cy guy and the tigers and twins make the a.l. central a race to watch. on "sportscenter." captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--

what's good? welcome to "sportscenter," with steve levy i'm scott van pelt. half an hour away john kruk will talk cy young and a leading candidate taking on boston tonight. zack greinke pitching for his 15th win of the season for the royals. that might be the key here because the most other clubs, might already be a 20-game winner. he's had six starts where he's allowed one run or less and didn't get a win in any of those six games. top of the first, here's greinke. gets kevin youkilis from the pitch in the dirt to end the inning. bases loaded for mike jacobs and paul byrd will walk jacobs on four straight pitches. so it's 1-0 kansas city. we're still in the bottom of the first. the visit to the mound and nen alberto callapso, what did you guys say on the mound anyway? single to right. the royals had a 2-0 lead now. and then a 3-0 alex gordon, little bloop job will drop in.

mike jacobs and callapso score. the royals up 5-0. so greinke some run support early. jason varitek, softly toward short. alex gordon, third baseman gets everything he can and he takes that one. and greinke getting some help and alex gonzalez swinging. greinke, 3-0 with a 0.26 e.r.a. in his past five starts. allowed 18 hits, one earned and 35 innings. now lowered his major league-leading e.r.a. to 2.08. 2.08, people. and this is the american league. zack greinke becomes the first royals pitcher to win at least 15 games in a season. paul byrd won 17. seven years ago and by the way, byrd was the losing pitcher tonight. nice when those things work out. elsewhere, the yankees still trying to clinch that playoff spot. all they need is a win tonight or a tecks loss.

-- texas loss. the rangers are falling out in oakland. and supreme court justice sonya sotomayor, a yankees fan from the bronx, announced she is scheduled to throw out the ceremonial first pitch saturday at the stadium. back to greinke. he moves to 15-8 on the season. e.r.a. of 2.08. season total of strikeouts, 229. the -- to further his cy young case, e.r.a. of 1.95 and eight no decisions meaning that it -- he probably should already have 20 wins. the remaining schedule, both of his scheduled starts are against the twins who like boston are still playing for something. so far this year, he's 0-1 in two starts against minnesota and while the royals have been out of the race for some time in their division, greinke still has a say in who wins it. 17 of his starts have been versus the division. he's 7-4 with an e.r.a. of 2.22 against the central division

foes. thank goodness we have the a.l. central. closest thing we have to a race. the tigers in cleveland leading the twins. you can see by just two. and edwin jackson going for detroit. trevor crowe with two on and two out. crowe singles to left. matt laporta will try and score. if you're calling for laporta, the best is yet to be. he'll call you when he gets home. out at the plate. the throw by ryan raburn. laporta out. by several steps. he was hurt on the play and would have to leave the game. top of the third, here's raburn. how about raburn? after the defensive throw, shows the offense. throws one out of the yard. tigers had a 1-0 lead. raburn, his 14th. miguel cabrera an up-and-down night. lines it off jhonny peralta's glove but asdrubal peralta fields it and gets the out at second. cabrera left five runners on through six. cabrera in the eighth, that's a double to deep left. he's going to drive somebody home. it's placido polanco. the tigers have a 2-0 lead and

a very important game for detroit. it's 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth. tigers and bases loaded and two down. and brandon lyon gets luis valbuena swinging so the tigers do hang on to win 3-1 in cleveland. important win for them. twins only 2 1/2 back. they got four games in detroit next week. jeff manship getting the start. crucial spot. down three because of that win right there. there's orlando cabrera. turning on john danks. two-run shot. his eighth of the year. twins on the board early. but here gordon beckham hits this hanging breaking ball like a wild pig with a dump truck. his 13th for the rookie. manship goes just 2 1/3, five hits, four runs. top five we're tied. here comes joe mauer. a shot that gets by the diving scotty pods. scott podsednik. cabrera comes all the way in to score and the twins are back on top 5-4. but in the bottom of the fifth,

francisco liriano on, in relief. paul konerko, brings beckham in all the way from first. so now tide back up at five. michael cuddyer, give me that. other way. home run number 29. minnesota, 6-5, they had the lead. later in the inning, danks still in there. giving up a few high flys. and he's giving up another. just barely out of the yard. huge sixth inning. as the twins cities, nine, gets a big win to answer the victory by detroit. so here's where things stand. and you see who's up next for each squad as detroit series continues with cleveland. minnesota series continues with the white sox and again to reiterate, next week, they meet in detroit for a big four-game set. and as long as minnesota can keep winning, they can at least go into that series with the idea that perhaps if they were to sweep, they would leave with

the lead. thank goodness for the a.l. central. >> giving us something. yankees a win away from clinching the berth as steve told you. coming up, we'll see how they're doing in anaheim and check in on all the late action. plaxico burress hired a consultant to teach him how to use his time in prison productively. an accidental shooting of himself earned the former giants super bowl star a two-year stay in jail on a weapons charge. tonight, burress is behind bars. upon his release, he'll still be monitored for another two years but by then, he could be an easy guy to keep tabs on. that's if another nfl team will have him. no autographs today, only apologies, sal masekela reports from new york. -- sal paolantonio reports from new york. the scene inside courtroom 1100 was very emotional. plaxico burress asked the judge for permission to say one last goodbye to his wife and young son. and then was led away by new york city police officers into jail at rikers island. a surreal moment for a man who less than two years ago was

holding up the lombardi trophy. i think what just happened in the courtroom with mr. burress being sentenced and remanded is terribly sad. and very tragic. what i said on the record, i will repeat. you can violate the law, be subject to severe punishment and not be a criminal. >> nfl commissioner roger goodell has already ruled that burress will be eligible to play again as soon as he's released from jail. which should be sometime in the spring of 2011. when burress will be nearly 34 years old. >> he feels bad about what he's done to his life, his career and more importantly to his family. and he's a fundamentally good man who has -- used bad judgment and will pay a very severe penalty. >> before plaxico burress was escorted off to jail, the last words he heard from a family

member came from his father. who said in a confident but somber voice, be strong. in manhattan, sal paolantonio, espn. sal, it was last november 29 when this entire ordeal started for burress. three days later he was suspended by the giants, was released by the team back in april, on august 20, he was arraigned on weapons charges. agreed to plead guilty and serve two years in prison. that sentence began serving today. roger cossack is espn's legal analyst. it's never easy to serve time in prison. but it may turn out that plaxico burress' time in prison is going to be tougher for him than it is for most prisoners. because he's such a high celebrity individual and because the guys in prison will know who he is, to protect him is going to be the number one responsibility of the new york prison system. and to do that, they may have to put him in places away from general population and sometimes that means that he may be serving prison time in a cell all by himself.

prison time is tough enough. but when you have to do it some of the time, all alone, it gets even tougher. plaxico burress is not going to have an easy two years. it is two years in its entirety. however, he'll spend 20 months in prison if he gets credit for good behavior. 20 months from now, let's call it may of 2011. nfl teams will already be done drafting and preparing for the upcoming season. p plfment ax will be 33-year-old wide receiver and says he won't be 43, he'll be 33. wide receiver still who hasn't played in 30 months. the dolphins are 0-2 yet again. last season, they had an amazing turnaround. but after their latest inexplicable loss, the head coach tries to explain the unexplainable. three big-time programs, three injured quarterbacks. we'll hear from the coaches on the statuses of the fellas with the golden arms. and with a win and a little help, the cards will be

postseason bound. find out if they could take care of their business and get a little help. "sportscenter." " r." r." r." r." r." r." r." r." r." r." r." r." r." " r." " " "sportscenter" brought to you by guiness. celebrate arthur guiness day on september 24. and underarmor. experience underarmor's fastest generation of cleats. at the sports authority. ♪

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♪ ba da ba ba ba "breakdown" brought to you by mcdonald's. after one game in their new stadium the cowboys are discussing making an adjustment. this is not about tony romo's decision making or the height of the video screens. no. it's about letting 30,000, 30,000 fans, into the building with nowhere for them to sit. >> one blog described the scene with the police basically saying there's nothing we can do here. the jungle law. we know the miranda there gets a tad bit crowded. we will have what else we know two weeks into the nfl season. the first thing we know after two weeks in the nfl season is that the new york jets have a very bright future and are in good hands for a long time to come. with their head coach, rex ryan, this team has fought --

bought into his philosophy and taken on his personality and their young quarterback, mark sanchez, will be there for a long time and win a lot of ball games. on espn's monday night football last night, the dolphins did a whole lot right. big picture, lots of good things but when you break it down in the end, they lost to the colts and toward the end they looked out of sync and out of time. >> we ran 14 plays in three minutes and 10 seconds. 14 plays in three minutes and 10 seconds, you do the math. tell me what that comes out to. but i would say that's probably a snap every 17 seconds. somewhere around there. in a two-minute drill. that's pretty good. it doesn't end up being a touchdown. but the end result is we had 14 opportunities to get the ball down the field. and we weren't able to do it. >> thanks to peyton manning, the dolphins are 0-2 on the young season. coming up, a little bit, trent dilfer's back with the one

thing he knows about miami. southern california, notre dame and oklahoma are programs with national championships in their past. who begin each season believing that they'll be in the b.c.s. discussion by the winter. each team has suffered an early season loss and each team is currently dealing with quarterback injuries of varying degrees. updates now on the health of matt barkley, jimmy clausen and sam bradford beginning with the reigning heisman trophy winner in norman. i'm not going to detail day to day, i'm a little disappointed our players had so much to say. not that we're at all trying to be coy or anything that's behind the scenes outside of we just don't want -- i don't want sam to have to deal with the pressure of everybody's expectations. again, too early to speculate. i'm not going to get into the speculation. and so, you know, once he's comfortable, and ready to play, we'll -- i'll have something to say. and until then, i'm just not going to deal with it every day and don't want our players and

team giving percentages or he did this much and not that much and then everybody gets determined, well, that's enough -- that's enough to play or isn't enough to play. i don't want to do it so i'm going to choose not to. >> they're at miami in two weeks. jimmy clausen dealing with the dreaded turf toe suffered on a sack by michigan state in a three-point irish win in south bend. charlie weis expects to have the nation's number two rated passer in terms of efficiency for their trip to purdue. but the practice schedule this week, a little bit more iffy. the m.r.i. came back negative other than the turf toe. so the rumors of him have broken foot and being done for the year are incorrect. but he does have a turf toe. and i'll probably hold him for practice today. our plan is to give with jimmy some of it on wednesday, all of it on thursday. and see how it goes from there. matt barkley could not go last week. as u.s.c. lost as nearly a three touchdown favorite at

washington. this week, they're favored by more than six touchdowns as they host washington state. in southern cal. pete carroll with the latest on the status of his true freshman. yesterday, to my surprise, and our surprise in general, that matt barkley practiced throughout the practice. he wasn't perfect. but he was -- but he was good enough to perform yesterday. i'm anxious to see how he feels today after throwing quite a bit yesterday. and he took half the snaps, he and aaron shared the snaps. but looked at his best since he was injured a couple of weeks ago. so we'll see what that story is. we don't really know right now. we have to wait day by day and see how it goes. >> espn's college football prime time continues thursday night. jevan snead and the number four ole miss rebels have a careful, careful, careful road test against the south carolina gamecocks. 7:30 eastern time. no easy road games in the s.e.c. both mannings having great seasons. ole miss, too.

wow. back to the ballpark, cardinals looking to chip away at their magic number which is three heading into tonight's action. st. louis in houston. albert pujols came in tied for third on the cardinals' all-time r.b.i. list. and in the top of the third, he pushes aside the hall of famer jim bottomly. pujols has sole possession of that mark by himself. third in the cardinals' franchise history in r.b.i.'s. hunter pence grounds to short. pujols looks to have hurt his wrist right there as he was tagging pence out at first. pujols would stay in the game. he would walk in his next a.b. top of the seventh, still 7-1. and colby rasmus is going to smash one up and get out. 16th of the year. rasmus goes 3-4 in the game. and the cards win a laugher. the cubs have been better in september by a little but right now their only role is prolonging the wait of st. louis to get into the playoffs. derrek lee has been spectacular since july 1. here, the pitch gets up and in.

and ryan theriot tries to score. jason kendall overthrows the home plate. and the brewers are looking like chico's bail bonds at this point. the cubs are up 6-0 and now up 7-0. as derrek lee has done it again. 35th of the year. not the cubs' year but lee has been super. 3-4, two doubles, a home run, a couple of r.b.i.'s. ryan braun here, deep into center. but tyler colvin will make a home run-robbing grab or so it appears. let me see that one more time. that would have made it 7-4. the brewers only get one in the inning and the cubs win it by the score of 7-2. still to come on "sportscenter," zack greinke can bring the heat. but can he bring home the hardware? we debate if he is cy young worthy this season. marion barber injured sunday night against the giants. will he play next monday night? here on espn against carolina. and the u. they have their swagger back. how coach randy shannon and a

young q.b. has miami back in the top 10. - ( rock music playing ) - ♪ lights out...

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♪ don't got to worry, you're locked in tight... ♪ one taste and you'll find the summer state of mind. - bud light lime. - ( vocalizes ) the second thing we know after two weeks of the nfl season is that the new york giants have found two receivers to replace the one big one they lost in plaxico burress. after two games, mario manning han and steve smith have combined for 29 catches, 422 yards and three touchdowns. the giants are explodive in the passing game once -- explosive in the passing game once again. i know i'm better looking than dilfer as a bald man. m.r.i. confirmed a strainled left -- strained left quadriceps for barber. barber hopes to play monday night when the cowboys host carolina but 50-50. the cowboys signed former southern cal running back chauncey washington to the practice squad as an insurance

policy. remember that football game last night? dolphins and colts? they chewed up the field pretty good. same field, phillies and marlins would play a double-header on today. josh johnson looking good for his 16th win of the season. struck out the side in the first. jason weather, singles to -- werth, singles to first. 4-0 phillies. johnson goes five innings, struck out 10. but he gave up four runs. as for his opposite number in that first game, joe blanton was strong for the phillies. bottom of the sixth, facing hanley ramirez. blanton went seven, no runs, nine strikeouts. top of the eighth, 4-0 phillies. bases empty and raul ibanez, he clears himself. it's a solo shot. 32nd of the season. the phillies go on to win game one 9-3. and what do you say we go for a night cap? anibal sanchez. pedro feliz, a little check swing job. and sanchez struck out the side in order in the second. bases empty for dan uggla in

the bottom of the second. facing jamie moyer. and not for long. uggla, get out of town. his 30th homer of the year. the marlins had a 1-0 lead. the phillies' magic number coming in was six. but they won that first game of the double-header so it's five. cody ross in the bottom of the fourth. takes moyer out. his 23rd. so it's 2-0 marlins. it was 3-0 and ryan howard, looking, sanchez, no runs, two hits, seven strikeouts. the marlins do get this split. tomorrow night, we'll round the bases with espn. major league baseball double-header. first at 7:00 eastern, the phils could chip another game off that magic number and then at 10:00, giants face the diamondbacks, wednesday night baseball, part of the hunt for october on espn. espn360. braves, five games out of the wild card. 10 games over .500. jair jurrjens, see his numbers against the mets. you think detroit would like to get him back in the trade they made? to give him away? there's the 4-6-3 double play. jurrjens gets david wright.

yunel escobar facing figaroa. martin prado and chipper jones comes in. and down 1-0 to up 2-1. bottom four, same score. jurgebs, jeff francoeur. -- jurrjens, jeff francoeur. the high off-speed pitch. 5-4-3 double play out of the inning. bottom seven, same score, runners on second and third and jurrjens again out of trouble. gets cory sullivan to fly out and gets win number 13 on the season. good young arm there. all right. "sportscenter" right now, red sox and royals. and it is the ultimate team sport. this is really all about the individual in this highlight. and it's not alex gordon. he blooped one into left. a couple of runners come around to score. the royals score five in the bottom of the first and that's all the help zack greinke would need. top of the third, greinke gets alex gonzalez. greinke is going to get david ortiz in the fourth and in the sixth, ortiz up the middle. yuniesky betancourt makes the catch there. greinke, six innings, two hits,

no runs, five strikeouts. the royals do beat the red sox. our question of the night, who should win the american league cy young award? we asked. is it greinke? is it felix hernandez? is it cc sabathia? so there's greinke and sitting next to scotty there's just cranky. that is incorrect. john kruk is -- he's a ray of sunshine. he's a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day. kruky here to talk a.l. cy young. >> i know where i'm going when we're done with this. >> straight over to the set. >> you can do this by yourself. >> i can handle it for half an hour. zack greinke only 14 wins. and when you analyze the cy young voting and who ought to get an award, some people feel like wins can be overvalued. when you consider how many times greinke hasn't gotten a ton of support. what's your sense of greinke's place in the hierarchy of where he ought to be in terms of a.l. cy young consideration? >> i think he should win it. and for this reason. he's pitched six of those games that he's pitched, he pitched -- he gave up one run or less.

and didn't get a decision. that's how dominant this guy's been. i understand he only has four -- 14 wins and the big thing coming in, he hasn't faced the red sox, hasn't faced the yankees. all he can do is take the ball when trey hill man gives it to him and hasn't missed a start this year and put up these numbers with the strikeout and e.r.a. he can't help the fact that he gets -- cc sabathia, if he would have pitched for the kansas city royals, how would he have done? >> a next level look at the run support. cc sabathia has received 142 runs of support. which is the most in the american league. and while he's thrown just four innings fewer than sabathia, zack greinke has received 40 runs fewer, royals, 102 runs scored, on his behalf, ranks just 22nd in the american league. so you say it should be him. i think -- i think the sabathia case is interesting. in that a lot of pitchers have gotten a lot of money to go to new york and they failed on that stage. cc to his ever loving credit has delivered. and he's done it for a team that's been the best in the american league. >> he has. andness an individual award.

-- and this is an individual award. but the team has to help you win this award and if cc wins it this is going to be the reason why. he has more wins than zack greinke but also gets more one support. if you put the numbers side by side, and you put zack greinke in new york and cc sabathia in kansas city, zack greinke is liable to have 22 wins by now. that's how dominant he's been. with all the one-run games and the no decisions he's got because he plays for a team that doesn't score runs. >> i fool like we ought to at least say felix hernandez's name. the guy is pitching in the great northwest which is part of the united states last i checked and for whatever reason he hasn't gotten a ton of attention. his wins and strikeouts and e.r.a., a healthy contribution. he won't win but a remarkable year. >> he absolutely has. and according to a lot of these charts and stats and analysis and all this stuff, he actually has better numbers than zack greinke. as far as everything that goes into a pitcher winning a cy young award. i mean, look, you can win with all three of these guys. believe me. you would take all three of them in a heartbeat.

and they're going to be all-stars for years and years to come these three guys. but what i'm saying is you look at what zack greinke has done on a bad team and the numbers he's put up, it's just phenomenal what he's done. watch the way he goes about it and the way he dissects hitters. king felix, nasty, and greinke has better stuff than both of those guys. >> an e.r.a. in the american league under one. midnight eastern, "baseball tonight," if john kruk is not taken out in cuffs after running over -- >> he's coming for you, big boy. next level, brought to you by miller lilet. there's -- miller lite. there's lti -- taste greatness. at least figure a few of their players will be in the division soon.

no cupcakes in miami, season opening schedule. no directions, either. can't find the east-west, north or south among the hurricanes' first four opponents. only two other schools in the last 15 years started with four games against a.p. top 25 teams. notre dame in 1999 went 2-2. central florida in 2000, 0-4. miami was assured of at least matching the irish and can beat them if they beat 11th ranked virginia tech on saturday. hank goldberg now from south florida. head coach randy shannon knows what the good old days were like at the university of mime i. having won a national championship as a player under jimmy johnson in 1987. the hurricanes ranked in the top 10 for the first time since 2005. shannon is making sure that 2009 version of the u does more walking the walk than talking the talk. >> you have to take one game at time and you have to tell the players after four games you're going to find out where we are as a football team. that's the goal.

you got to go one at a time. which is at florida state, at home at georgia tech and then you have virginia tech and oklahoma. go one game at a time. you cannot defeat the first opponent trying to think about the fourth. those guys, so far they've done a great job of concentrating. that's what the coach has done a good job at. compartmentalizing each game. and ok, this game's over with. let's go. next game. >> jacory harris, quarterback, a personality on the -- bringing a quiet confidence and personality for the rest of the team to feed off of. >> the pressure in a comes with winning and the hype that comes with winning i understand. and i don't let it get to me. and i try to let this mentality brush off on the rest of the team. and so far, it has done a wonderful job. >> he's worked all he can in practice. i think the game does come to him easy and that's the one thing about watching jacory operate. >> while the team isn't ready to say that the u is back, the buzz around campus would suggest otherwise.

i stopped by the ticket office and asked the lady behind the counter if business was brisk. she said, things are getting a little crazy around here. in coral gables, i'm hank goldberg, espn. hammer time. after going .500 and only two wins against ranked opponents for the past three seasons, one under larry coker and two under randy shannon miami is 2-0 with both wins coming over ranked opponents this season. the cannes are ranked higher -- canes are ranked higher than 2005. two big games coming up. you call the halfback throwing the ball, i'm calling time-out or calling an audible. that's sonny jurgenson and in washington, d.c., he's still king and what happened after he called out jim zorn. the yanks a game away from making the postseason. rangers, fight fighting for their playoff lives. these plays are good. we'll see if they're good enough. anhn